Sigh.

I guess we need something new, huh.


Alright, how about this 'un - who are the overlooked guitar heroes of indie rock? It's not really a topic tailor-made for this kind of forum because of the (fucking bogus) notion that "indie rock" is somehow defined by a lack of ability. But I think it could also be damned interesting.

There are the obvious answers - Ted Leo, Doug Martsch

The stupid answers - Marnie Stern, Moore/Ranaldo, (NO I DIDN'T!)...uh, anyone from Minus the Bear

The dubious answers - Stephen Malkmus...

So let's get come up with a fourth category called "good answers." I'll let someone else start.

How about ME?! I'm signed to an independent record label and have been overlooked by industry bigwigs for longer than I'd care to remember -

Click here for strange noises etc

Failing that, the following guitarists are currently on indie labels and I don't think they've managed to garner adoration from 'Guitar' magazine as yet -

Tom Barman and Mauro Pawlowski (dEUS)

Agata (Melt Banana)

Ed Wynne (Ozric Tentacles)

Explosions in the Sky?

Why is Malkmus dubious by the way?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: thefanste,

I was mighty impressed by Tad Kubler of the Hold Steady when I saw them live. He's got some serious chops.

Also: J Mascis.

Bob Mould, especially on Pink Turns to Blue and, well, the entirety of Zen Arcade.

Paul Westerberg is one of my favorites.

J. Mascis (oh lordy do i love Kracked) is pretty much a mandatory answer.

*cough* Jack White *cough*

I think that King Khan dude is pretty amazing.

Whoever the guitarists from Clinic is (Abe Blackburn or something?) makes some interesting squeals that make me happy.

That guy from the Dodo's seems pretty damn interesting to me guitar-wise.

I forgot Mascis for the "obvious" category

I say John Reis! Also The Joggers!

yeah, i don't know if stephen malkmus is dubious. you might not like his guitar work, but he is a nasty guitar player. and i would agree that meric long from the dodos is a really good guitarist. he is really fast and can play the blues as well as most i've seen.

here are a few off-hand:

j mascis
john dieterich (deerhoof)
ian williams (battles, don caballero)
andy moor (dog faced hermans)

ian williams is easily the best guitarist i've ever seen.

one more: devin ocampo (faraquet, medications) is pretty nasty as well.

Daniel Sproul, Rose Hill Drive. Better than any other guitarist I've ever seen in my fucking life. Go see them live, they will own your soul.

Does anyone here know what "dubious" means? This is a thread about the greatest "indie" guitar players, and -

Forget it.

John Kimbrough from Walt Mink.

More obvious ones!

Jeff Tweedy (he played all that awesome shit all the way through Ghost, Nels Cline is obviously great but the only album he's on is crushingly mediocre)

Jonny Greenwood

Mark Kozelek

Mackaye/Picciotto

Graham Coxon (Blur)


Old influences!

Todd Rundgren! Tom Verlaine! Andy Gill!

quote:

Originally posted by BlackGravel:
Does anyone here know what "dubious" means? This is a thread about the greatest "indie" guitar players, and -

Forget it.

well how do you mean it? i thought you meant that whether malkmus is considered a great indie rock guitarist is dubious. if that's how you mean it, then that's what i was responding to. personally, i think he's great.

For some reason I sadly know very little about Les Savy Fav - only know who the frontman is - but I recall from Les Savy Fav listenings they come up with awesome guitar hooks with regularity. But yeah, Wiki says: Seth Jabour (guitar), Andrew Reuland (guitar)

quote:

Originally posted by BlackGravel:
Nels Cline is obviously great but the only album he's on is crushingly mediocre)

Sky Blue Sky isn't my favorite Wilco album my any means, but I think it gets a little more slag than is really warranted. Of course if you want to hear some great guitar work by Nels and Jeff, look no further than their live album Kicking Television. Well, that or actually go see them live!

Also:
Jason Molina
Ira Kaplan
Kevin Shields (another obvious choice I'd say)

Having seen Wilco live, I'd say Tweedy is a good guitarist, but Nels is better.

Nels Cline has been playing jazz guitar for about one hundred years. His chops and technique are obviously far superior. He's not "better."

I'd say he's definitely better, that's not to put anything against Tweedy, Nels Cline is incredible, both technically and artistically.

Anyway, here's a few:

Matt Valentine of MV And EE (I don't much like them but, seeing him live, it's tough to deny he's a great guitarist.)

Both guitarists for Ecstatic Sunshine are fantastic, check the video of their song Anagram on youtube.

I was very impressed with Dave Longstreth of the Dirty Projectors when I saw them. He's by no stretch of imagination a traditionally great guitarist, but he is very talented and his style is very unique

There are definitely more, but those are a few off the top of my head.

quote:

Originally posted by BlackGravel:
Nels Cline has been playing jazz guitar for about one hundred years. His chops and technique are obviously far superior. He's not "better."

maybe i don't understand what you mean by better here, because technical ability, as i'm sure you would agree, obviously factors into it. are you meaning that creativity is what sets tweedy apart? because if we're going to add creativity as a large factor, then i might take issue with your initial dismissal of moore and renaldi, two guys whose creativity is almost impossible to match.

It's Ranaldo, and I was calling it a stupid answer because pretty much anything "original" that those guys did, I fucking hated. It's some of the worst shit I've ever heard. Daydream Nation makes me want to crawl in a hole and die. Apart from Teenage Riot. How's that for controversy, you PUNKASSED PUNKASSES

And about Nels - no, actually. I don't think technical ability should factor into it at all. I'm talking about the guitar parts these guys write and perform, how awesome those guitar parts are.

Let me say that again - I don't think technical ability should be even one percent of the decision. It matters not even one tiny little infinitesimal sliver of a bit. A dude who's played guitar for two months could play Cortez the Killer, and you could search 90% of the world of music to find a better guitar song.

I'm a guitar instructor; and I can tell you right now that any "virtuoso" guitarist who's revered for his chops or speed or technical aplomb will be ousted by at least one 16 year old who wanders through Guitar Center every day. And their favorite band will still be Seether. Nobody who knows what time it is gives a fuck about that nonsense.

quote:

Originally posted by BlackGravel:
It's Ranaldo, and I was calling it a stupid answer because pretty much anything "original" that those guys did, I fucking hated. It's some of the worst shit I've ever heard. Daydream Nation makes me want to crawl in a hole and die. Apart from Teenage Riot. How's that for controversy, you PUNKASSED PUNKASSES

I'm going to have to go ahead and disagree with you on this one. Ranaldo and Moore certainly deserve to be mentioned here, I hardly see this as a "stupid" answer just because you don't like them. Sure, Daydream Nation is one of my favorite albums, but EVOL, Sister, Dirty, Murray Street and Sonic Nurse are all great albums too.

And hopefully you're being somewhat sarcastic about your whole hating Sonic Youth is controversial spiel, as on Metacritic alone there are lengthy debates here and here about Sonic Youth being overrated. So this is hardly a new concept and you're definitely not alone or the first to feel that way. Anyways, time to go listen to my deluxe vinyl edition of Daydream Nation

I specifically hate DN. But in general I hate their bullshit New York art-twats aura. I do like some of their other albums. I guess the best way to say it is that Sonic Youth are made up of really talented people who are not my kind of people (the dudes in the band - and let's face it, it's hard to like music made by the type of people you could never, ever hang out with), and one vapid pretentious cunt with nothing to offer at all (Gordon).


But let's PLEASE not get off on SY. Look at the rest of what I was saying, that part was the point.